Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id XAA17005 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 19 May 2000 23:15:48 +0100 Message-ID: <39257763.249AEFDB@mediaone.net> Date: Fri, 19 May 2000 18:18:27 +0100 From: Chuck Palson <cpalson@mediaone.net> X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.72 [en] (WinNT; I) X-Accept-Language: en To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: Technology vs. culture References: <20000519202805.AAA18473@camailp.harvard.edu@[128.103.125.215]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
"Wade T.Smith" wrote:
> >Beliefs are always the
> > movers of change. Wade - I would love to hear what you say about my
> > widget/wizzer thing.
>
> As to what motivates change, well, beliefs may certainly- so may
> radioactivity or bone-crushing accidents....
>
> Uh, what _is_ your widget/wizzer thing?
It was a message I sent to Vincent in answer to his question. Here it is
again:
Vincent Campbell wrote:
> I'm not asking why it's transmitted, I'm asking how it's transmitted,
and
> whether or not that process is different in any kind of way from
natural
> selection.
>
I think I've got a way to answer, but it might take some going back and
forth
for a while. The "how" is obvious, by the visual channels. That means the
brain
has to use a far more limited range of senses than ever before to
understand.
And worse, it's probably far more limiting than we can imagine.
Here's an interesting fact to illustrate the problem. The US Navy trains
recruits mostly only highly computerized ships with the exception of one
battleship that has relatively fewer computers. The rest of the navy
fights for
the recruits in the latter -- because they are ultimately better at
computers!
The reason is probably the following: those that learn about the ships
functions
mainly through computers only have two senses, sight and (sometimes)
sound, to
learn with. The ones from the poorly equipped ship have learned about the
ship
with a lot of actual use - touch and feel. The more senses you can rally
to
learning a task, the better you will learn it. In other words, learning
through
computers is what I might call thin - it doesn't create as many
associations in
the brain.
Now, back to your question. That is in a nutshell the problem of modern
society.
We have to learn much more from fewer senses. Those who are genetically
favored
to do this better may be selected for. In other words, it's not "outside"
evolution, it's evolution in the making. To answer your question, it is
*not* a
"process [that] is different in any kind of way from natural
selection."
So where does that leave media studies? With a very difficult problem
that no
simple tool is going to help you solve. The fact is, we are not very well
equipped to absorb facts without having practical experience with those
facts. I
think it was Marx who said that all knowledge is sensual, by which he
meant not
abstract. This fact of life imposes all sorts of limitations on modern
society.
There's simply no magic bullet on this one, not even treating information
as if
they were genes - that only gives you one more layer of abstraction to
confuse
the issue.
Did I read you right this time?
>
>
> - Wade
>
> ===============================================================
> This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
> Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
> For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
> see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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